by Case » Sun Jan 15, 2012 1:36 pm
Bruce333 wrote:"160,000 light-years distant, 30,000 light-years across" doesn't match "180,000 light-years distant, 15,000 light-years across"
It depends on whose research you follow.
NED finds 334 (!) distances in literature for the LMC. The lowest is 133,727 ly (0.041 Mpc); the biggest number is 231,576 ly (0.071 Mpc). Statistically NED finds a mean of 163,082 ly (0.050 Mpc) with a standard deviation of 13,047 ly (0.004 Mpc).
Also the width across is not so easy to to pinpoint, as the the 'edges' are fuzzy. (How wide is the 'cloud' in the image below?)
![Image](http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/8490/extinction.png)
I agree that 30,000 is a long way off from 15,000, though.
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
[quote="Bruce333"]"160,000 light-years distant, 30,000 light-years across" doesn't match "180,000 light-years distant, 15,000 light-years across"[/quote]
It depends on whose research you follow. [url=http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/]NED[/url] finds 334 (!) distances in literature for the LMC. The lowest is 133,727 ly (0.041 Mpc); the biggest number is 231,576 ly (0.071 Mpc). Statistically NED finds a mean of 163,082 ly (0.050 Mpc) with a standard deviation of 13,047 ly (0.004 Mpc).
Also the width across is not so easy to to pinpoint, as the the 'edges' are fuzzy. (How wide is the 'cloud' in the image below?)
[img]http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/8490/extinction.png[/img]
I agree that 30,000 is a long way off from 15,000, though. :)